In the furnishing of fuel to an engine, it has been the practice to use positive displacement pumps to pick up fuel from a tank and deliver it to the fuel rail and fuel injectors of an engine. Vane pumps and gear rotor pumps have been used and these pumps generate substantial pull at the inlet as well as a positive outlet pressure. Side fuel jets have been associated with these pumps to bleed off some of the pump outlet and direct it to a combined jet and venturi. This venturi will pull fuel from the main fuel tank and direct it to an in-tank reservoir for holding reserve fuel. In some instances, a fuel system would have a return line controlled by a pressure regulator to direct excessive fuel to an in-tank reservoir. More recently, with the advent of pressure responsive pumps to control pump speed, the return line was not necessary. However, it was still important to get fuel into the reservoir and the side jet venturi became useful to do this. See jet disclosure in U.S. Pat. No. 4,860,714 issued Aug. 29, 1989.
The very nature of positive displacement pumps resulted in a certain noise factor when operating. Since these pumps are located in the main fuel tank at the rear of a vehicle, the noise could be transmitted to the passenger compartment. A new type of pump became useful in the form of a rotary turbine pump. The rotor, having vanes at the periphery, rotates in an annular chamber, and fuel is pulled in at an inlet section and discharged at a circumferentially spaced outlet area.